Sir Andrew made it known
to a Dutchman, in a broad hat, that we were Lord Walwyn's sisters
come to see him, and he thereupon called a stout maid, in a snowy
round cap and kerchief, who in the first place looked at our shoes,
then produced a brush and a cloth, and, going down on her knees,
proceeded to wipe them and clean them. Sir Andrew submitted, as one
quite accustomed to the process, and told us we might think ourselves
fortunate that she did not actually insist on carrying us all
upstairs, as some Dutch maids would do with visitors, rather than
permit the purity of their stairs and passages to be soiled.
He extracted, meantime, from the Dutchman, that the Englishman had
been very ill with violent bleedings at the lungs, but was somewhat
better; and thus we were in some degree prepared, when we had mounted
up many, many stairs, to find our Eustace sitting in his cloak,
though it was a warm summer day, with his feet up on a wooden chair
in front of him, and looking white, wasted, weak, as I had never seen
him.
He started to his feet as the door opened and he beheld us, and would
have sprung forward, but he was obliged to drop back into his chair
again, and only hold out his arms.
'My sisters, my sisters!' he said; 'I had thought never to have seen
you again!'
'And you would have sailed again for Scotland!' said Annora.
'I should have been strong in the face of the enemy,' he replied, but
faintly.
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